And now to conclude the Big 3 Broadcaster awards with SBS, featuring some of the most popular dramas of the year. Tree With Deep Roots was the big winner of the night, winning six trophies in total, including the Daesang for Han Seok-kyu, and the Top Excellence Award for Best Drama. There were no big upsets in any category, because they kind of have a category for everyone, but that’s the name of the game. I’m just happy for Han Seok-kyu’s big win, and the fact that he didn’t have to share the glory with any split-award hullabaloo.

Protect the Boss cleaned up as well, winning Best Couple and acting awards for the stars, as well as an additional netizen popularity award for Choi Kang-hee. As expected, Thousand Day Promise had a strong showing in the acting categories, as did fellow melodrama Scent of a Woman. It certainly was the year for tearjerkers. The winners…

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Post tags: awards, Choi Kang-hee, Eom Ki-joon, Gu Hara, Han Seok-kyu, Im Soo-hyang, Jaejoong, Jang Hyuk, Jeon Gwang-ryul, Ji Chang-wook, Ji Sung, Jung Kyeo-woon, Jung Yumi (2), Kim Rae-won, Kim Sun-ah, Lee Dong-wook, Lee Mi-sook, Lee Min-ho, Lee So-yeon, Lee Yo-won, Seo Hyo-rim, Shin Hyun-bin, Shin Se-kyung, Song Joong-ki, Su Ae, Wang Ji-hye, Yoon So-yi

October 17 was the night of the 48th Grand Bell Awards (or, per its Korean name, Daejong Awards), and it was a big event for a few films in particular. And while the Joseon-era David-versus-Goliath action sageuk Bow: The Ultimate Weapon didn’t sweep the categories, it did take home a nice chunk of them.

But Best Picture (and a few others) went to the Korean War film The Front Line (which is probably a good thing, since it’s this year’s entry to the Academy Awards — not that I expect it’ll win or even make final cut. Korean films rarely — never? — do).

A couple of other notable winners: bright, touching comedy Sunny, and the moody, pensive Bleak Night. All are on my Must Watch ASAP list.

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Post tags: awards, Bae Jong-ok, Cha Tae-hyun, Choi Kang-hee, Daniel Choi, Go Chang-seok, Jang Seo-hee, Jang Young-nam, Jo Hee-bong, Jo Sung-ha, Jung Soo-young, Kang So-ra, Kim Haneul, Kim Hye-soo, Kim Sumi, Lee Je-hoon, Lee Min-jung, Moon Chae-won, Park Hae-il, Park Hyo-joo, Seo Young-hee, Shin Hyun-bin, Shin Hyun-joon, Song Sae-byuk, Won Bin, Yoon Kye-sang

We’re in for a whole new ride with today’s theme: Protect the Boss – Last Team Standing. It’s an episode of adventure for some, horror for others, and still yet, some cast members are near non-existent in this episode. Who do you think the bosses are? Guess wisely though, because things are not always as they appear…

EPISODE 59. Broadcast on July 31, 2011

When our cast arrives, they’re immediately paired off as they await their mission. Jae-suk waits for his team partner – could it be Choi Min-soo? After all, he did ask to be scheduled for Running Man again to get revenge on Jae-suk. But no, it’s Kwang-soo, who runs to meet him like the Kwangvatar he is. It looks like the new name suits him, given his tall stature and long legs, much like an Avatar straight out of James Cameron’s blockbuster.

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, featured, Haha, Ji Suk-jin, Ji Sung, Kang Gary, Kim Jong-kook, Lee Kwang-soo, Running Man, Song Ji-hyo, Yoo Jae-suk

We’ve got posters and character promo stills out for SBS’s Protect the Boss, and I have to say that this drama is slowly growing on me with what appears to be an offbeat, wacky vibe. It just may be quirky enough to work.

I wasn’t initially too enthralled by the chaebol hero and the boss-secretary setup (Ji Sung and Choi Kang-hee, respectively), but this looks like no typical K-drama setup, and no typical chaebol. Instead of being the coolly perfect businessman we’ve become so familiar with in dramas, this hero’s kooky and eccentric, while she literally kicks ass. The plot unfolds as she undertakes Project Tame The Errant Boss, and romance ensues.

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Jaejoong, Ji Sung, Protect the Boss, Wang Ji-hye

What weird stills. I guess they’re taking the title literally for SBS’s upcoming Protect the Boss (at least in the fight scenes at the bottom of the page) — and they sure weren’t joking when they described the leading man played by Ji Sung (Royal Family) as a “deficient boss.” In fact, you could sum up the plot of this “lively romantic comedy” as Project: Tame the Bad Chaebol, which is the drama’s description of its story, not mine.

The stills here come from the shoots for the drama’s title sequence, and I’d say they’re pretty good at capturing the antagonism and bickering that characterizes the boss’s relationship with his new secretary (Choi Kang-hee), with whom he’ll fall in love eventually. Meanwhile, his perfect cousin-rival (Jaejoong) provides a sharp counterpoint to the hero’s eccentric personality with his tailored suit and polished appearance.

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Jaejoong, Ji Sung

Maybe third time’s the charm: The SBS romantic-comedy series now titled Protect the Boss has already ditched two previous titles, The Boss Has Changed and Last Secretary. Let’s see if it sticks this time.

The drama has also added another cast member to join its main four of Choi Kang-hee (the new secretary), Ji Sung (the boss), Jaejoong (the sharp businessman), and Wang Ji-hye (the cool lawyer). Now rookie actress Lee Hee-won, pictured above, joins them to play Jaejoong’s perfectionist secretary.

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Jaejoong, Ji Sung, Lee Hee-won, Wang Ji-hye

SBS’s upcoming rom-com series Last Secretary has been renamed The Boss Has Changed, which is a title change I like; already it goes from sounding vaguely serious to light and fluffy, which is what you want in a romantic comedy, no?

The drama has also finalized its lineup. The first two to be confirmed were Choi Kang-hee (My Sweet Seoul) as our heroine and Lee Hee-jin (Best Love) as the hero’s friend and senior secretary at his company. Looks like the latter has dropped, but now, we can add Ji Sung (Royal Family), Hero Jaejoong (Heaven’s Postman), and Wang Ji-hye (Personal Taste) to that list.

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Jaejoong, Ji Sung, Wang Ji-hye

Lee Hee-jin is on a bit of a roll: Currently playing best friend Jenny on MBC’s Best Love, she’s lined up her follow-up drama, which will be Choi Kang-hee‘s office-romance drama Last Secretary.

That’ll be the third drama in one year for Lee Hee-jin — actually, just over half a year — since the former pop group singer (of late-’90s girl group Baby VOX) made her drama debut in November with the family-centric drama It’s Okay, Daddy’s Girl. I think she’s one of the more successful examples of stars making the idol-to-actor transition, and she was so solid in Daddy’s Girl that I was surprised to realize she was a total rookie — her Ae-ryung character (Moon Chae-won’s big sis) was warm, sensitive, and caring, and she had a calming, mature aura in it.

Then, she went completely in the other direction with Jenny in Best Love, playing a bubbly, chattery, and sometimes immature character that’s just about as diametrically opposite to Ae-ryung as you could get. That’s why I’m pretty sure she’ll be fine making another transition in Last Secretary, where she plays a senior secretary in a large corporation, a chic and well-educated woman who speaks five languages and carries herself with confidence.

She’s also a friend to the boss, in addition to being his competent right-hand woman. (Think Park Ji-yoon in Lie To Me.) In fact, the friend-who’s-also-secretary-to-the-boss character is apparently becoming enough of a trend to spawn yet another slang shortened-word term, the sa-chin-seo, which stands for 사장님 친구 비서 (비서계의 엄친아란 뜻), or boss’s friend and secretary. Aka, the eom-chin-ah/ddal (엄마 친구 아들/딸), or likable boy/girl next door, of the secretary world. Lordy, Korea, not everything needs a nonsensical nickname — you could just use full words once in a while. Just sayin’.

Currently, Choi Kang-hee is the only other cast member attached, and will play a secretary who is newly hired to the company, who falls for the boss hero. His character is yet to be cast, although there have been some rumors of Ji Sung being courted.

To be honest, I find Best Love’s Jenny to be vastly overacted, but I quite liked her in Daddy’s Girl and was pleasantly surprised with her acting there, so I think Lee will probably continue to do well in her acting career. At the rate she’s going, she’ll be busy for a while.

Last Secretary will air midweek on SBS, following City Hunter in August.

Via Osen

RELATED POSTS

• Choi Kang-hee back to TV with Last Secretary
• Best Love: Episode 1
• Best Love casts former idol as former idol
• It’s Okay, Daddy’s Girl: An overview
• It’s Okay, Daddy’s Girl: Episodes 2-3
• It’s Okay, Daddy’s Girl: Episode 1

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 29 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Lee Hee-jin

New drama alert! Choi Kang-hee (Petty Romance) is returning to television in SBS’s new Wednesday-Thursday drama Last Secretary, which airs later this summer.

In it, she plays a heroine despairing at her inability to find employment, when she’s hired as a secretary in a major company and falls for her boss. Of course. (One of these days, I’d love to see her fall for the guy at the bottom of the office totem pole. Or the cute coffee clerk in the lobby. Or the IT geek. Just something different.) Given that 34-year-old Choi Kang-hee is famous for her own baby face, the immediate premise reminds me of Baby-Faced Beauty (if the heroine fell in love with the hot boss instead of her co-worker) — although, admittedly, the secretary-boss dynamic is hardly new and can be found, oh, everywhere.

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Ji Sung

What is Choi Kang-hee doing as a scantily-clad assassin on the cover of a comic book? It’s apparently how Lee Seon-kyun‘s character imagines her, when he uses her as inspiration for his adult comic in their film Petty Romance. Well, we know what HE’s got on his mind.

But my favorite part isn’t even the machine gun in one hand and the rose in the other, or the latex dress the size of a napkin, (Because really, the actual Choi Kang-hee wore less in the real-life posters for the film. Let’s be honest.) but the quasi-transliterated title. The meaning of the title [킬러본색] is Killer’s True Nature, or Killer Nature, but it’s written in English as Killer Born Sex, which are homophones for the title that have nothing to do with the meaning of the words. It makes me laugh though, because it’s clearly trying to be a sexy-sounding title, ending with a mash-up of words that almost makes sense as a phrase. Almost.

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Read the rest of Choi Kang-hee’s sexy assassin transformation (229 words)

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Post tags: Choi Kang-hee, Lee Seon-kyun